Silicon Valley Bank's collapse sends shivers through China startups

Silicon Valley Bank's swift and sudden collapse made waves far beyond the US as tech firms in China scrambled to park their money with other lenders. Chinese startups have long relied on SVB, which has forged ties with local government officials in Shanghai, for venture capital funds after traditional US banks turned them away. "Silicon Valley Bank has played an instrumental role for us," Guanchun Wang, founder of Laiye, a Beijing-based tech startup, told the Information. SVB's collapse "Could make it harder for Chinese startups to raise money from U.S. investors - at least in the short run," Wang said. In 2012, SVB partnered with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank to form SPD Silicon Valley Bank Co., which provides VC funds to tech startups. Michael Wang, co-founder of a Chinese automation software startup in Hangzhou, told the Information that he was urged by venture capital firms to immediately pull his money from SVB accounts - hours before the bank collapsed. The bank's collapse sparked fears in the US of contagion in the banking sector.